Back to the drawing board!

I recently made the decision to start designing a new chassis and enclosure for my simulator. The current build is a simple, clean design but i'm not altogether very pleased with it. It is a basic open cockpit structure that I put together after the complexities of building a full scale closed cockpit replica of the Cessna was causing my head to explode! However I have decided to have another stab at it and see where it takes me. Sleepless nights are coming! I'm sure of it.

When I first started this project I discovered a little program called Sketchup. A computer magazine called CustomPC was raving about it and I decided to give it a try. When the time limit was at an end, I was genuinely gutted. It is a very easy to use CAD program that produces quick results. Google, being the fantastic people that they are have now bought the Sketchup company and made it completely free. It is a "basic" version of the program, but, I mean "basic" in very loose terms. Because it is very useable and shares much of the abilities of the "Professional" program. This wonderful software, which used to cost hundreads of pounds, is now free to use. If you haven't given it a try, I whole heartedly recommend it. The link is below:

http://sketchup.google.com/

As the picture shows I am planning my project in SketchUp to give me a better idea of what the complete simulator will look like. Using the exact dimensions, I can see how to construct the complete enclosure without ever having to waste materials. It should give me a way to test the design and also give the ability to show others as well. The low file size can be distributed by email and as long as other people have the same program, I can get some feedback. I am already thinking of building the enclosure out of MDF. I need a light material because the instruments and aluminium panels themselves when brought together are quite heavy. The actual floor chassis will probably need to have some holes drilled into them to keep weight to a minimum. This is how real airframes are built. I need to stike a balance since I can't have the simultor top heavy or too flimsy. The last thing I want is to be sitting in it and all of a sudden it colapse!!! That would be very embarassing and it would give me a complex!!! Bye for now.